St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-10-09

Fifteen years ago.
1t was in the fall of 1872 that a wealthy
Detroit man was on his way home from
business noticed little girl with a
bundle of newspapers under her arm
| that she was trying to sell. She was the
only newSgirl in the city. She was
| sparcely, hardly comfortably dressed.
She was blowing her warm breath on
her finger tips, bringing the toe of one
foot against the heel of the other and
! standing on the Windward side of
post, patiently and cheerfully waiting
for customers Her dress came just be-
| low her knees, her stockings had been
darned. her head was covered with
plain. nearly worn out straw hat with
single bit of bright ribbon as its only
| ornament. He glossy black hair hung
| in a Wavy mass down her back. But
her face was bright, her voice was
CHEEKY, and she had the pluck to stand
shivering in the raw, cold wind until all
but one were sold.
3That little girl was Margaret Mather
FinlaysOn.
LAS She turned her little face up to the
rich Detroiter and pertly said, ''paper,
sir?" he was struck by her beauty and
her clear, ringing voice; and, as he no
ticed that she was suffering with the
cold, he stopped to question her. He
| found out that she was ten years old;
| that her father was a mechanic of more
ability than means, and that she was
Drawing the cold to earn few shillings
for her mother. Her story interested
him and he took her to his home. His
wife and children could not do enough
fer her. A warm supper. downy bed,
no end of quizZing about her own home
was what made her dream that night
that she would not always be news
girl. In the morning the good people
who had become her friends fitted her
out in new, warm suit, put some
money in her pocket and took her to her
parents.
Again in 1886
After lapse of fourteen years there
was another scene. 1t was in the De-
troit Opera house. There in box sat
the man and his family who had be-
friended the little newsgirl. They had
paid big money for the box. When
the princely robes of a Juliet, dignifed,
| powerful and calmly swaying a great
audience by word or a look as she
passed from one scene to another in her
wonderful performance, the people in
the box were enthusiastic, delighted, re-
warded. They must believe their own
eyes, else they might well have doubted
whether the shrinking, shivering wee
bit of newsgirl they had curiously
watched and tenderly cared for in their
own home was really the same person
who was now commanding the acclaim
! of thousands and whose name was
printed in large letters in the very papers
| she used to sell.
1t was the same person.
But how rapid, how great, how sue
| ceSSful had been the change. The same
| earneStneSS, the same self-contrOl, the
| same pluck that had made her success
| full neWs-girl had made her a star in the
| dramatic world. She had some relatives
in New York who were in easy circum-
stances. They heard of her absorbing
| interest in books, OF her excellence
| when a mere child, in reading, and of
| her ambition to get a thorough educa-
| ton. Upon their solicitation she went
/ there to live with them and go to school.
! She made the most of her advantages.
| Not satisfied with mere routine of school
| life, she would be found at home alone
reading aloud from Shakespeare and
other authors. Her delight when six
| teen Or seventeen years of age was to
| read to herself or to a group of school
| mates even before the thought of dra-
| matte career had ever entered her mind.
! 1t was constant indulgence of that
UIOuSHt ucI
| notice as reader and an elocutionist.
| AT one of these readings j. M. Hill hap
| pened to be present. His training as
| manager had fitted his eye and ear for
| quick and sure discernment.
How she commenced.
He talked long and carefully with her
| the evening he heard her read. He saw
in the handsome young reader three
prime requisites for success, an Unborn
genius for converting an authors words
to thoughts, a rich physical endowment,
and an ambition backed up by unfiinch-
ing determination. He reasoned that
| BY careful and consistent training these
clements could be developed, and he set
about the task. He knew from exper-
fence what she would have to accom-
plish, and how great obstacles she
WOULD nave to overcome. She was
Started right, encouraged at every step,
and her progress was rapid. Delighted
With her work, always willing and
ready to accept suggestions, her conduct
Has consistent, her efforts in earnest,
and there was perfect harmony be-
tween her and her manager.
Her great success.
Her debut was at McVicker's theater
az Chicago, Aug. is, 1882. In word,
Miss Mather did not practice before the
puGllc, to whom she made no appeal
Until fully ready to perform That she
was successful at once was the most
convincing proof in favor Of her con-
ception of the character of the gentle
Juliet. What other actresses have
learned through tears and sorrowful eX-
periences, Miss Mather appears to have
attained by intense study and careful
consideration of cause and effect, viz:
The perfect consistency of incon-
sistency in the outward dcmonstra-
lions made by person laboring under
the influence of strong emotion.
And now at Minneapolis.
For week the Flour City will he
treated to histrionic art in its womanly
perfection, aided by all that can be
added in the way of scenic splendor
"Romeo and Juliet is put on as it
might appear in Verona itself, and
Macbeth" in way that transports the
spectator to the wilds of primeyal Scot
land. Then there is the Honeymoon,
in lighter vein, and again the weird and